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Month: February 2017

One of the unforgettable things I’ve experienced before embracing the life of a salary man was when I was a marketing intern in an appliance distribution company.

I can vividly remember when I was asked by my OJT supervisor to bring a pile of approval sheets to the Marketing Manager, who apparently was her boss.

As what other interns did, I gleefully took the files, walked down the aisle, and passed by several cubicles before reaching a secluded office at the other end of the aisle. There was no signage on the door. So before I knocked, I asked some employees nearby if that was the office of the marketing manager. The three of them momentarily swallowed their nonexistent saliva before they answered “YES”.

At that moment, I got the slightest hint that this man behind the door wasn’t the type of boss who had a sunny personality. So with much caution, I knocked twice, opened the door and greeted him.

No response.

I looked at him. He was so engrossed looking at his computer screen with his eyeglasses on.

He was neither a grumpy old man nor a monster that would eat you alive.

Actually, he was a bit young – in his late thirties perhaps. He looked at me and raised his palm in the air as if telling me: Where are the sheets?

I immediately moved forward to his table and placed the files on his desk. He asked, “Are you a new employee?”. I immediately told him that I was just an intern. He nodded back and then told me that I can leave.

As you can infer, he could be a typical boss who sat on his desk all afternoon, secluded himself from his subordinates most of the time, and was terrified of him.

Bosses are chosen to lead. They are highly capable individuals who are tenured and can speak with authority.

But bosses are human beings too. They are prone to errors and mistakes. And in some cases, they also lose their cool and become temperamental at times. Okay, fine, I get you – probably most of the time.

Being in charge as a head, as a manager or as a boss entails a great responsibility of managing a team. More so, it is an endless challenge to prove their competencies and worth in the organization. That is why people like them are potentially vulnerable to any and all work-related stress you can think of.

Most of us will agree that an effective leader not only helps manage conflict but also supports team members to grow professionally, which can take a lot of time. Some would even argue that a good boss is transparent and owns up to his or her mistakes like what everyone should do. But the most important thing a good manager does is to also regular assess themselves and constantly improve his or her leadership skills.

Below is a helpful infographic from the Headway Capital on how to assess yourself as a leader:

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You may get mad at your subordinates or makes a little questionable decision once in your life. But just like what every employee needs to do, evaluating one’s self is the best way to reset yourself to make a fresh start.

Is a website revamp or digital marketing part of your marketing plan for the year? Let iManila help you achieve the website that works for your company and achievable digital marketing activities to pumped-up your year marketing direction. Call us at (02) 490-0000 or send your inquiry at info@imanila.ph.

When you’re working for a Digital Marketing agency (imanila.ph), this is the SEO million-dollar question and the most crucial. Do you overpromise? Or try your hardest to not look incompetent in front of the client.

For a million SEO dollars, what is your final answer?

IT DEPENDS! And that’s the truth!

There is no 100% proven effective method to rank on top of Google SERP in no time – unless you’re cloaking in the dark and doing BLACK SEO, then you ‘might’. What most SEO guys and gurus do is just to follow SEO’s best practices.

In a recent case study published by Ahrefs , only 5.7% of their sampled pages from 2 million random keywords (potentially 20,000,000 unique pages) made it to the 1st page of Google’s SERP (Search Engine Results Page) – and those were the “lucky” ones optimizing for low-volume keywords.

Take note of the words “lucky” and “low-volume”. And the remaining 95%? Not even close.

To put it in a little more perspective, 5.7% of 20,000,000 is 1,140,000. Only 1,140,000 pages will rank in Google’s Page 1 SERP in one calendar year.

Take a moment to let that sink in. We know what you are thinking.

SEO is dead!!

On the contrary, it is very much alive and kicking. As a matter of fact, those who are reaping the benefits of ranking on the first page of Google are experiencing a 5% increase in their web traffic on a monthly basis.

Going back on track, the issues-at-hand discussed that the realities surrounding SEO are more of the duration and domain authority that websites undergo or must obtain before even having a shot of getting on the Page 1 SERP.

So what are the realities that we are looking at? To help us dig into these realities, Ahrefs’ case study analyzed two million random keywords in their database as a sample and analyze their rankings based on the keywords they used, the age of the web pages, and their respective domain ratings.

Below are their key takeaways:

How old are the top-ranking pages?

For starters, Ahrefs identified how old the current top-ranking pages are.

They took 2 million random keywords and pulled data on the Top10 ranking pages for each of them. Which resulted in this graph:

For those holding up a #1 spot in Google’s SERP, their average age falls somewhere in between 500 – 950 days or 1.36 to 2.60 years old.

Those at the #10 spot averaged at a peak at 650 days or 1.78 years old.

So the next thing they wanted to know is what percentage of pages at each ranking position were less than 1-year-old:

For the #1 spot, only 1% of the sampled pages or an estimated 200,000 unique pages were less than a year old.

While those lingering at the #10 spot, were just a little above 4% or at least an estimated 800,000 unique pages weren’t even old enough to celebrate their 1st anniversary on the web.

Comparing that to the potential sample of 20,000,000 unique pages, clearly, this doesn’t look too promising, right? The SERP is clearly dominated by “old” pages.

How long does it take for a page to rank?

They tracked the position history of each page for any keyword it’s ranked for. Which resulted in this graph:

Only 5.7% of all studied pages ranked in the Top 10 search results within 1 year for at least 1 keyword.

Pages from websites with a high Domain Rating (DR) performed way better than those with a low DR. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise because Ahrefs’ Domain Rating metric (shows the strength of a website’s backlink profile) correlates well with Google rankings.

They then zoomed into this 5.7 % of “lucky” pages to see how quickly they got from nowhere to the Top10.

The majority of them managed to achieve that in approximately 61 to 182 days.

SUMMARY:

We all know how powerful SEO can be in time, but doing it is not a breakthrough that can happen overnight. This study is not definitive, but this shines a huge light into the most common question of clients: How long does it take to make my website rank on top of Google?

Their study clearly shows the following key points:

95% of newly published pages don’t get to the Top 10 results of Google’s 1st page within a year.

The top 5.7% SEO performing website who are dubbed as “lucky ones” made it to the 1st page within 2 to 6 months and that’s for low-volume keywords.

Domain authority is an undeniable factor in ranking.

To all hardworking websites who have made it to the first page, good job!

Those who didn’t make it, yet working hard to breakthrough, you are almost there! Don’t stop!

To those who are still thinking whether they’ll invest in SEO, re-evaluate your thoughts.

To those who are still demanding to be on top in no time, wake up! SEO is a persistent project that only gets better over time, especially if you hire one of the best SEO guys in the Philippinesto do the job for you.

The Philippine social media scene was taken by a storm of reactions as one of the most popular food chains released a series of ads in lieu of Valentine’s Day tomorrow. Jollibee has taken the heart of many once again with their all new Jollibee Valentine Series.

Some liked it, some had their hearts broken, and some even to a lighter “meme” approach to express their sentiments.

With all these mixed emotions and voices that users posted and shared in the past days, one thing is for sure – Jollibee delivered more than what it was supposed to.

This milestone in Philippine advertising proved that content truly delivered when they are done precisely and artistically. The question now is: How can other brands recreate, or maybe even top, Jollibee’s campaign?

For a brand that has witnessed generations of diners come and go, Jollibee has basically a solid foundation in terms of knowing exactly what its market profile is. The brand has been part of the different phases of a customer’s life such as parties, celebrations, meetups, dates, desperations, and probably even heartaches.

The point here is, Jollibee is few meters ahead in terms of market domination and profiling hence, their ability to pull some stories from their experiences.

For start-up brands, breakthroughs are very rare especially in terms of marketing virality. You can start by profiling your market step by step. Know them little by little until you get the bigger picture of who they really are. Knowing them well is the initial step in creating the content that they’ll most likely engage with, the one that really appeals to them.

It’s similar to how you try to learn everything about your significant other that getting the “perfect” gift for them becomes second nature to you.

The human emotion is a complex yet beautiful side of humanity. No matter how rational a person is, a dominant emotion – in some cases – overrides the most rational thoughts.

Human emotions are like test tubes of delicate and potentially destructive chemicals in a laboratory. There are vitriols, dopamines, oxytocins, and adrenalines – of which one cannot be mixed with another one without carefully getting the right proportion.

Jollibee has carefully picked the right emotion for each of its Valentine videos. The core emotion served as the binder and reference point of the content. From words, to shot lists, and down to the acting of the cast – all of these speaks to the core emotion of the entire concept of the content.

For start-ups, this process can be achieved by creating content with different emotional inclinations. Releasing it alternately on different channels can give you data where you can draw your conclusion – as to which one works well with your market.

Admit it or not, we love something that we can fully relate to. Not just on the basis of what we felt when watching but more of the identifying ourselves as part of that content. How did Jollibee achieve that? By tackling social realities.

How many Filipinos have suffered a loss of a family member, a parent, or a spouse perhaps? And not being with the person you love in one of the most celebrated events of the year will definitely bring tears to your eyes.

How about being trapped in a “best friend zone”? How frustrating can it get for someone not to get the one he loves despite being close to her?

Oh wait, did I forget about our crushes? Every one of us has experienced a phase in our lives when we felt that piercing strike of cupid’s arrow.

These realities are what people gravitate towards. It is like speaking in behalf of those who cannot directly express themselves in their most heartbreaking, depressing, and even to the happiest times.

For start-up brands, these can be achieved by stringent observation of your market’s psyche. Frankly, this kind of approach can be achieved when the brand matures, or when the brand has identified its market and their common psyche. Because getting the right social reality to incorporate to your content takes a lot of years to perfect.

An innovative digital and stable approach towards a shared goal, that’s what the Digital Ecosystem is about. Unlike aardvarks, the Digital Ecosystem works best in collaboration with its components. A collaboration which allows it to interact and interconnect within its networks. Similar to the natural ecosystem we have learned in grade school, the concept of the Digital Ecosystem relates to the online applications, digital marketing services, and all things web – instead of plants, animals, and other biological entities. It’s an interactive environment ideal for all businesses.

Understanding this model’s holistic approach is of great essence in achieving collective goals. Ergo, iManila curated a Digital Ecosystem that caters one’s online needs congregating to its innovative, strategic, and technology-driven web and digital services. This Digital Ecosystem provides sustainability, scalability, and stability to all organizations, and here’s what these three words signify:

Capacity for a strong connection and a stable approach. The ability of the Digital Ecosystem to have a strong hold, a strong connection to people forges stability. Aside from amplifying leads, the Digital Ecosystem is also an effective channel for creating value; offering experience and satisfaction to its people. Thus, building a strong connection which then shifts into a valuable possession when service-dependency surfaces – driving people towards brand loyalty and client retention forthwith.

Capacity for growth. The Digital Ecosystem has the competency to easily upgrade on demand, thus, establishes scalability. Because of the teamwork within its domain, its diverse networks maintain hold of the productivity in the midst of increasing demands — demands of the ever-changing technology-based model and demands from the people it aims to reach. Moreover, the scalability offers growth within the network, allowing each component to expand without compromising each of its goals.

Capacity for endurance. Indefinite changes in this digital milieu build sustainability in all organizations. The strength to endure abrupt online revolutions defines the Digital Ecosystem’s ability to uphold its linkages toward a common goal. Utilizing advanced tools, right methodologies, and a proficient workforce affirms a resilient business model that can transcend and adapt to future innovations.